LETTER TO DAVID A. STOCKMAN FROM WILLIAM J. CASEY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85M00364R001502580027-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 20, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 18, 2008
• Sequence Number: 27
• Publication Date: November 29, 1983
• Content Type: LETTER

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Ccnt.al I, itdlie cncc Agency
OLL: 83-2790/A
29 November 1983
Honorable David A. Stockman
Director
Office of Management and Budget
Washington, D. C. 20503
This is in response to your request for my views on
Enrolled Bill H.R. 2780, which would continue in effect the
current certification requirements with respect to El Salvador.
Under this provision, the President is required to certify to the
Congress that the Government of El Salvador-
(1) is making a concerted and significant effort
to comply with internationally recognized human rights;
(2) is achieving substantial control over all elements
of its own armed forces, so as to bring to an end the
indiscriminate torture and murder of Salvadoran citizens
by these forces;
(3) is making continued progress in implementing
essential economic and political reforms, including
the land reform program;
(4) is committed to the holding of free elections at
an early elate and to that end has demonstrated its good
faith efforts to begin discussions with all major
political factions in El Salvador which have declared
their willingness to find and implement an equitable
political solution to the conflict, with such solution
to involve a commitment to-
(A) a renouncement of further military or
paramilitary activity; and
(B) the electoral process with internationally
recognized observers.
H.R. 2780 would continue this requirement through the end of
Fiscal Year 1984, unless Congress enacts new legislation providing
conditions for U.S. military assistance to El Salvador.
On further close reflection; I urge that the President set
the Bill aside ("pocket veto"). I understand that the National.
Security Council staff and the Department of Defense concur in
this view.
The semi-annual certification has not worked in the past as
a means of improving the human rights situation in El Salvador and
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thel:e-ii:s no indication it would do so in the futuie. The process
t is set up leaves no options but to choose between
certification or cutting off assistance and this :is viewed by both
supporters and opponents of the El Salvador Government as an empty
threat. Moreover, 7 view the Congressionally-=i-mposecl
certi.fi_cat:i.on requirement as an undesirable limitation on
Executive Branch ability to employ other means to achieve our
objectives of support for democracy, economic improvement and
opposition to extremism of the Left or the Right. Cer-t.i.ficatioa
makes it difficult: for the Administration to criticize. the
Salvador Government, while at the same time defend that same
Government before the Congress. Thus, if the certification
requirement is vetoed, the Administration would have greater
flexibility and leverage to bring about positive changes in El
Salvador.
Enactment of this Bill could have an adverse impact on the
current Government of El Salvador. The Salvadoran Government is
presently beset by extremist violence on the Right and the largest
coordinated guerrilla offensive in nearly two years. Presidential
approval. of this Bill could be the death knell for the provisional
government and our hopes for elections in the Spring. The
prospects of a right-.ring coup would increase significantly with
the approval of this Bill and a subsequent certification failure.
The certification cycle, every 180 days, provides a target
date useful to the international Communist propaganda apparat:in
isolating El Salvador in the eyes of Western governments and
public opinion. Both the violent Right and Left have increased
the number of terrorist acts as time for certification. approached,
in an effort to prevent the E1 Salvador Government from receiving
the assistance it: requires in the struggle against both extremes.
Finally, the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 already
includes conditions on aid to governments which violate human
rights. Congress has recently enacted additional conditions on
military aid to El Salvador which require reform of the judicial
system, implementation of the land reform program (including
Presidential certification on progress), and rendering of a
verdict in the trial of the National Guardsman accused of
murdering five U.S. churchwomen in December 1980.
For the above reasons, I urge that the President set the
Bill aside. A pocket veto precludes the necessity for a vote to
override a Presidential veto and requires that the legislation be
reintroduced next year. Hopefully, conditions at that time will
have improved sufficiently to make such legislation. unnecessary.
1 l
Director o
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Distribution:
Original - Addressee
1 - DCI
1 - DDCI
1 - EXDIR
1 - ER
1 - DDI
1 - DDO
1 - C/LA/DDO
1 - OLL Subject
1 - OLL Chrono
1 - D/OLL
1 - DD/OLL
1 - C/Leg Div/OLL
1 - C/LD/OLL
DD/OLL:E11:mig (29 Nov 1983)
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